The way from the olive to the oil

Our oil, fruit of a still totally handmade effort, is produced in different working phases: first of all you have the manual harvest, the so called "brucatura", a very costly method that permits to pick the fruits intact and still quite green from the plant. The best olives from the heart of Umbria usually ripe in the period between November and December. The harvest is carried out with little rakes, after a net has been spread out around the trunk to collect the fallen down olives. Then thy are bought directly to the oil mill in plastic baskets that have little holes to have a better ventilation.

In the oil mill follow the other phases of the working: the washing, the squashing, the mixing and in the end the pressing and separating.

The washing is important because it allows to remove any impurities, dirt and leaves that are together with the fuits. After the washing you come to the squashing, where the olives are exposed to pressure that is responsible to break apart the skin from the pip. What you get is a mash of both elements, called "pasta".

Then begins the most delicate part, the mixing. After a resting period the mash is continuously mixed at a controlled temperature so that the microparts of the oil mix with each other and separate from the pip: So you receive a mix that permits to separate, using a centrifuge and diverse filters, its three components water, refuse of the fruits and oil.

The result is a green oil of most intensive taste and the characteristic smell of the olive. This "green gold", reward for a lot of work, was once considered as most valuable commodity - as testified by the attention with which the older ones in our region still treat their oil filled containers: careful not to waste not even one drop.